Encouraging students to engage in activities they are likely to fail at can lead to growth and learning. The goal is not masochistic suffering but rather to challenge oneself and experience discomfort, which signals growth opportunities. The pursuit of busyness and stress as a badge of honor can hinder true personal development.
Are we using technology to make ourselves numb? What’s the downside of air conditioning? And was Angela the most annoying person in her college classes?
- RESOURCES:
- "World Happiness Report," (Gallup, 2024).
- "How Painful Should Your Workout Be?" by Alex Hutchinson (The New York Times, 2022).
- "Taylor Swift’s NYU Commencement Speech: Read the Full Transcript," by Hannah Dailey (Billboard, 2022).
- The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self, by Michael Easter (2021).
- The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning, by Paul Bloom (2021).
- "Residents of Poor Nations Have a Greater Sense of Meaning in Life Than Residents of Wealthy Nations," by Shigehiro Oishi and Ed Diener (Psychological Science, 2014).
- "Confusion Can Be Beneficial for Learning," by Sidney D’Mello, Blair Lehman, Reinhard Pekrun, and Art Graesser (Learning and Instruction, 2014).
- "Stranger Situations: Examining a Self-Regulatory Model of Socially Awkward Encounters," by Joshua Clegg (Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2012).